Australia Fears Future of E-Cigarettes

Professor Mike Daube, West Australia’s tobacco control expert, has gone on record to state he is incredibly concerned about the repercussions of his country’s citizens utilizing electronic cigarettes and the unknown health effects they may pose. In addition to the belief that tobacco companies are only producing electronic cigarettes in order to get their names out to the public through advertising, Professor Daube also believes many of the tactics used by tobacco companies are directed towards gaining the attention of children and young adults. Professor Daube even went so far as to depict e-cigarettes as “a weapon of mass destruction”, and demands further research be conducted before determining whether they are actually safe and effective smoking alternatives.

Professor Gerard Hastings, British public health expert and worldwide advisor on health policy, social marketing, and advertising, shares Professor Daube’s fears of e-cigarettes and compares them to “constantly taking aspirin to get rid of a pain, rather than addressing the cause of the pain”. In Hastings example, smoking or nicotine addiction would be the cause for the pain and e-cigarettes would be the “aspirin” to help relieve the discomfort. Unfortunately, what both of these professors fail to realize is the overwhelming evidence from self-reported and observed data from smokers that have drastically reduced or completely eliminated the level of nicotine and number of cigarettes from their lifestyle thanks to the assistance of e-cigarettes. Professor Daube argues that in Australia, “trends are different here” and selling e-cigarettes is already illegal in West Australia. However, both Professor Daube and Professor Hastings neglect to consider the fact that the accepted nicotine alternatives currently available are not effective, and more successful and appealing methods must be considered if global cigarette smoking rates are ever going to decline.